Originally Posted by
San Gottardo
CDG is trying hard to win back a place in the most unpleasant airports to travel through.
The problems with immigration at 2E are now well documented. T1 is a joke as well, PARAFE is out of service since months. Now the pain starts in 2F. In the context of Vigipirate and the state of emergency they have put in place border controls for arrivals of passengers in 2F-2. Except that it suffers from the same organisational deficiencies as the other terminals: too few agents, no PARAFE, no separation between EU and other passports. When I arrived there the other day we were held back on the jetway (!), because people were clogging the walkway, held back by security people, because the little hall in front of the border control posts was full. Took more than 45 minutes to get off the plane to the baggage hall, and that was only with some "cheating" on connecting flights.
I do understand the rationale for putting in place border controls even for Schengen arrivals during the state of emergency. But I have little understanding for pi$$ poor orgnization: at least make the PARAFE work, put enough agents in the booths, and put in place a fast lane for EU/EEA passport holders.
A Chinese friend was flying CX HKG-CDG-HKG this week. Initially he only had work to do in Paris but he had to make an unexpected business flight to another Schengen European city before returning to HKG. He booked the return Europe flight on AF to allow a 2 hours connection to his return CX flight. The flight arrived 15min late, he waited an hour to leave 2F and another long wait at 2A. He missed his flight and had to wait 8 hours for the CX evening flight from CDG. Not a happy fellow.